URI chemical engineering professor named 2025 Cottrell Scholar
KINGSTON, R.I. – Feb. 19, 2025 – University of Rhode Island assistant professor Ryan Poling-Skutvik has been named a recipient of the prestigious Cottrell Scholar Award for 2025.
Poling-Skutvik, a chemical engineering faculty member with a limited joint appointment in physics, is among only 16 recipients of the award this year, joining a distinguished group of multidisciplinary awardees honored by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. Selected candidates are chosen through a rigorous peer-review process of applications from public and private research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions.
“It makes me immensely proud to receive the Cottrell Scholar Award, which really recognizes the scientific contributions of the undergraduate and graduate students in my research group,” said Poling-Skutvik. “The award also highlights our priority in communicating science and improving STEM education.” Each award includes $120,000 in funding.
The award proposals incorporate both research and science education. Poling-Skutvik received the award for his proposal “Developing a Dynamic Taxonomy of Soft Matter for a New Era of Material Design.” “This project builds on existing work out of my group to reimagine our understanding of soft materials by manipulating and controlling their intrinsic dynamics. Our approach will result in transformational advances in biomimicry, novel capabilities for 3D printing, and universal understanding of complex fluid mechanics,” said Poling-Skutvik.
Started in 1994, the awards are named for educator, inventor, and science visionary Frederick Gardner Cottrell, who founded the Research Corporation for Science Advancement in 1912, a private foundation that advances early stage, high-potential basic research in the physical sciences at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
As awardees’ careers advance, Cottrell Scholars become eligible to compete for several additional levels of funding. Poling-Skutvik was also the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2024.
This press release was written by Krysta Murray, a writer with the URI College of Engineering.
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